PC Master Race

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Switching monitors between two machines (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/pcmasterrace

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Hello! I'm in a situation, where I have a work laptop and a personal computer, the latter is used mostly for gaming. In order to switch between them I have to plug all the peripherals from one machine to the other, to help with that I bought a dock, to which I can connect everything, and connect the dock via one USB-C cable. The trouble begins with the monitors, as my laptop supports thunderbolt, but my motherboard doesn't, so it's a bit of a chore to switch them.

To alleviate the issue I'm considering changing my motherboard to one that has thunderbolt 4 support, as I have one 4K monitor and one full HD, and I've read it should support them fine on one cable. Is this a good solution? I'm thinking I might run into some issues with monitors not being connected directly to my GPU, latency or otherwise.

I beseech thee for help o masters of the PC.

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[–] nevemsenki 1 points 1 year ago

I use a HDMI matrix switcher myself, something like https://www.amazon.com/FERRISA-Switcher-Splitter-Optical-Extractor/dp/B07MYRX22F (not what I use, but roughly similar). You hook up your laptop and PC to the switcher, both displays in the out, and then you can switch either display between PC or laptop with the remote. This also allows me to keep all my cables tucked away.

One caveat tho: not all switchers support a resolution and refresh rates, so read up before buying.